Suppose you could sit down with one person, any person, currently alive (not a historical figure), for as long as you want to, and learn everything you always wished to know about him or her. Who would you choose?
An actor? A politician? A businessman? A singer? A philosopher?
Tough question.
How much time would you spend with him or her?
I might pick Billy Graham, and I imagine I could spend days or weeks before I would learn all I want to know. Several others come to mind. Yet, I can’t think of a one that I would be satisfied to simply meet. Sure, I would love to meet Ravi Zacharias, for example, but if I had an opportunity to learn from him for the next several years, then I would not be satisfied to simply meet him and then go my way.
Yet, that is how many of us treat Christ. We met Him, and then don’t bother to stick around and learn from Him. Some of us have met Him only once. Some of us meet Him only on Sundays between the hours of 11 AM and noon. Some of us believe we are special because we meet with Him three or four hours a week. Each and everyone of us, though, have been invited to make Him our mentor, and learn from Him all day, every day, seven days a week, forever.
How can we turn that down?
How do we renew our minds, as Paul tells us in Romans? By asking Christ to rid our hearts and minds of the gross filth that now occupies them, and filling them with his wisdom. It is through Bible study, prayer, and worship that we renew our minds.
Here is one of the great mysteries of Christian holiness. It is through God’s power and our self-discipline that we may ever rid ourselves of the carnal nature that so plagues us with evil desires.
How to start? Just sit down with the Bible, and pray. Just… Talk to Him.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
– Romans 12:2
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name –
Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
go spread your trophies at his feet,
and crown him Lord of all.
Go spread your trophies at his feet,
and crown him Lord of all.